US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets an Afghan refugee household at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Washington:
The US on Thursday praised the Taliban as businesslike and cooperative in facilitating the primary evacuation of People from Afghanistan for the reason that US navy withdrawal.
The departure from Kabul to Doha on a chartered Qatar Airways flight Thursday marked “a optimistic first step” with the brand new regime, Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Emily Horne mentioned.
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of Americans and lawful everlasting residents on constitution flights from HKIA,” she mentioned in a press release, referring to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport.
“They’ve proven flexibility, they usually have been businesslike {and professional} in our dealings with them on this effort.”
Practically 40 US residents or everlasting residents had been invited to board the flight however solely 21 had been on board, State Division spokesman Ned Value mentioned in a tweet late Thursday.
“After all we wish to see extra such flights,” he had mentioned earlier. “Now we have heard public statements that extra, actually, could also be forthcoming.”
The US had beforehand mentioned that slightly greater than 100 People had been believed to stay in Afghanistan after President Joe Biden ended the 20-year navy mission in August.
Value mentioned that almost all People remaining had connections in Afghanistan and needed to make “wrenching” selections on whether or not to go away and didn’t have to resolve now.
“This chance does not expire in the event that they flip it down at some point, if they modify their thoughts the following and even subsequent 12 months,” Value mentioned.
A round the clock airlift within the remaining two weeks of the battle shuttled greater than 123,000 individuals, together with most People in Afghanistan.
Horne mentioned america “facilitated” Thursday’s departure of People from Afghanistan and thanked Qatar for its position within the effort.
“Now we have been working intensely” to make sure the secure departure, and the flight is the results of “cautious and onerous diplomacy and engagement,” she mentioned.
The flight comes two days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Qatar, the transit level for round half of the individuals airlifted from Afghanistan.
Biden and his administration have come underneath fierce criticism for having left People on the mercy of the Taliban.
Consultant Mike Waltz and Senator Lindsey Graham, each fierce Republican critics of the withdrawal, welcomed the Qatari flight.
However they added in a joint assertion that “it was inexcusable that the Biden administration allowed a terrorist regime to dictate the phrases of permitting People to go away on their very own with their households.”
“The US doesn’t take orders from terrorists,” they mentioned.
Former president Donald Trump’s administration reached the settlement with the Taliban to withdraw troops and froze efforts to let Afghan allies immigrate to america.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
